Only three of the new Raptor sprayers received field time in Canada during the rain-shortened 2004 season. Darren Caswell had two of them, spraying 20,000 acres.
In June and July, Caswell sprayed 8,000 acres with a Raptor 850-gallon loaner from Ramboc while he waited for delivery of his new 1,000-gallon unit. He then sprayed another 12,000 acres with the bigger unit, which wears the badge Serial Number One.
“We needed a bigger sprayer for our main farm,” said Caswell, who crops 6,000 acres at Bracken, Sask.
“We needed higher ground speed and higher liquid capacity. And I’d pretty well had my fill of hydrostatic drive sprayers.”
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Caswell does a complete pre-seed burn-off on every acre, always trying to keep the sprayer two days ahead of the drill, but he couldn’t always manage that with his smaller sprayer. If weather shut him down, it could put him seriously behind in the overall seeding operation.
“We had a 1995 Patriot 150, but that’s only 750 gallons and it never let us spray any faster than 10 or 12 mph,” he said.
“That’s absolute top speed. The short wheelbase and coil spring suspension they put on for 1995 gave us a really rough ride. Very choppy. We have another farm some distance away, and we needed a sprayer there, so we just moved the Patriot over there.”
He said he had considered the Apache because of its mechanical drive system but didn’t like the cab.
“So, as soon as we saw the Raptor at the Farm Progress Show, we knew this was the sprayer we had been searching for.”
Caswell said the ground speed alone gives him 20 to 30 percent more acres per day and the bigger tank provides even more efficiency. So far, he has only run the Raptor at 30 to 32 km-h (18 to 20 mph.)
“It will spray at 25 or 26 mph no problem, but the fields aren’t always as smooth as we’d like them,” said Caswell, who practises direct seeding.
“Our fields are smoother than they were 10 years ago, but still not good enough for 26 mph. Plus, expecting an operator to make all those decisions at that high speed is asking for trouble. There’s a lot going on once you’re spraying faster than 20.”
He thinks hydrostatic drive is fine for low-speed machines like combines and swathers, but there’s too much power loss in the 12 km-h (eight mph) and higher range that a sprayer requires.
“Those variable displacement pumps can get your four drive motors up close to a good working speed, but then they have no torque left if you get into soft ground.”
Caswell thinks the Raptor shines in muddy fields. He sprayed in wet conditions this past summer and never got stuck with the two-wheel drive system.
“Mud has always been a problem with hydrostatic drive,” he said.
“Granted, hydrostatics are four-wheel drive, but that really doesn’t do you any good in muddy conditions. A lot of these sprayers are back heavy. As soon as you get into mud, the rear tires bury themselves so deep that your front drive doesn’t even matter anymore. The back end just disappears.”
He said the front motors don’t have enough power to get out of the mud even in the low range.
“I would estimate that with a 150 horsepower engine like we have in our Patriot, we probably lose at least 40 hp to the hydrostatics.”
Caswell said the rear drive on a hydrostatic system gets so hot the motors are subject to burnout. He changes the oil in the drive system every time he changes engine oil.
“I think it’s just a matter of time before the entire industry converts to mechanical drive,” he added.
“I think it’s probably worthwhile just for the fuel savings alone.”
Caswell thinks the brakes are one of the best features of the machine.
“We load it up with 1,000 gallons of water and wind it up to 45 mph on the highway and you’ve still got pretty darned good brakes. Far better than what you would ever expect on a high clearance sprayer.”
Caswell likes the idea that virtually every part is off-the-shelf from a major implement manufacturer.
“We get a proven John Deere diesel engine and a proven John Deere cab with 1,000 gallon tank, and the cost was only $192,000 landed in our yard. Other 1,000 gallon sprayers are up in the $280,000 range. An 800 gallon sprayer is up around $240,000. With this sprayer, we know that even if Raptor should go out of business, we’ve always got parts available from some kind of dealer or salvage yard.”
Caswell said he isn’t happy with the 90-foot boom that came as standard equipment on his 1,000 gallon sprayer.
“There’s no break away on these Precision booms, except the last four feet, and that doesn’t do me any good. It’s not enough break away,” he said.
“I was desiccating wheat with just one day of spraying to go before I was all finished up. I slowed down for a little dip in the field, but I wasn’t quite quick enough lifting, so when the boom dipped into the crop, it just collapsed. The boom tip didn’t even dig into the ground. The standing wheat grabbed it and the truss just folded right up and flopped down on the ground. I lost a whole day fixing that.
“So, this boom has to go. That’s all there is to it. Ken Weddle is designing his own boom for these sprayers and he says he will have one of the first experimental booms delivered up to me before winter is over. I suppose these Precision booms are fine if you’re spraying at eight mph, but they can’t take these higher speeds that we spray at now.”
The 850 gallon loaner came equipped with an Ag Shield boom. Caswell said it was not as easy to fold up and transport as the Precision, but it worked better in the spraying position, which is most important for a boom.
“The Ag Shield really followed the ground nicely. As fast as you could go, it followed the contours: valleys, hills, low spots. That really takes a tremendous workload off the operator,” he said.
“Plus, it’s got full, 100 percent break away on both sides. We were turning at the end of a field, and with a 100 foot boom, that outer tip gets travelling pretty fast. Well, we hooked it on a fence and took out a bunch of fence posts, but it didn’t bother the Ag Shield boom at all.”
Caswell admitted he’s excited about the new sprayer.
“With Serial Number One, it’s to be expected that there will be some minor teething problems, and there have been. There have been some wiring upgrades and it looks like there was a manufacturing flaw in the frame, but Ken is looking after all those things, as well as the boom situation. He comes right out to the farm himself to work on the sprayer, rather than send somebody. That tells me he’s committed to building a better sprayer.”
